No Amount of Education?

Elliott Cohen: “As an unemployed 24-year-old psychology major graduate with two additional diplomas, let me be the first to tell you that this reality of 'work' after school could not be further from the truth. Being unable to find work in my field, I have started looking for unrelated work just to survive.”

I was reading this letter to the editor (Vancouver Sun) while sipping on my orange juice this morning. I'm an under-employed Political Science graduate, so I know a little bit about what he's talking about.

“I want every reader to know that no amount of education prepares students with work skills or for work itself. A word of advice: Before enrolling in a post secondary institution, consider whether the time, effort and money are really worth it.”

I have a little problem with that paragraph. The first sentence is a little hard to believe (no amount of education?), and the second seems a little overly cautious. I enjoyed university because of the new ideas and the interesting people. It's only really worth it if you have the time and money (which I did), but if you do, I would highly recommend any type of higher education, just for the person you become because of it.

Comments

This is one of those things my friends and I argue in circles over and over again. I'm of the mind that university is not there to train you for a job. It is there to train you to think, to reason, to argue, to analyze, etc. It's training is abstracted and intellectual. In a certain sense, regardless of what your major is, you come out with a similar set of skills. Where the problem lies is that the non-arts majors all come with a certain amount of skill-training as well. A biologist comes (or should come) out with all the same intellectual tools that a poli-sci major comes out of school with. However, in maby ways a biologist is immediately far more employable to the average corporation than a political scientist. Why? For one, the skill-set provided by most science degrees is quantifiable, whereas those in the liberal arts are not. Many would argue that universities are missing the point in this day and age: with the costs involved with education, they should be 'better preparing' students for the professional world. I would argue that these people are missing the point. What we need, perhaps, is more respect for trade & technical schools, as well as better regulation for them. Go to university, get a political science degree, learn how to think. Go to a trade school to get trained for a job. Perhaps apprenticeships should become more normal again (although internships are essentially the modern equivalent). If you want to be trained in a skill, don't go to university. You're not helping it, it's not helping you. If your desires are a little more abstract, by all means, go: but don't expect them to prepare you for a job afterwards. That's my $0.02